Chad Ochocinco's Feed The Children: Huge U.S. Charity Rocked By Scandal Bigger Than Sex Line Snafu

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- At least 1-800-HELP-FTC wasn't the number to the charity's $1.2 million house in Los Angeles.  Kroger grocery supermarkets in Cincinnati Bengals country are pulling Chad Ochocinco cereal boxes -- the "honey nuts" -- off the shelves because a snafu has the phone number for the sex line printed on the packages.  But there is a much larger scandal engulfing Chad's favorite charity, Feed the Children, which was supposed to benefit from the cereal sales.  Oklahoma-based Feed the Children is embroiled in a bitter court battle with its founder Larry Jones, who was fired last year.   The American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog organization, calls Feed the Children the nation's "Most Outrageous Charity," because of dirty linen that is emerging through the lawsuits.  Charity Watch has a lot of the background. Here's a tidbit:

"Since Jones was fired from FC, he has gone from being a defender to a critic of the charity. Last summer Jones defended the Oklahoma City based charity's purchase of a $1.2 million house in the Los Angeles area 'to reach out to celebrities' and told the Oklahoman that his daughter 'lived and worked out of the house as intended.' Yet in legal papers filed 1/19/09 against FC, he accused his daughter of 'treating a business residence in California as her personal residence.' In the same lawsuit he criticized other employees who worked for him for many years when he was head of the charity, including accusing FC's chief financial officer, Christy Tharp, of being incompetent even though she had worked for him as FC's CFO since 2002."

None of the turmoil seems to show up on Feed the Children's website, although something might be there that was overlooked by The Daily Bellwether. The Associated Press had a long piece by reporter Sean Murphy about the issues confronting Feed the Children. The AP piece was distributed in mid-September.

In Ochocinco's case, the charity seems to have supplied the wrong phone number, which is odd. It should know its own phone number. Today's Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Feed the Children admitted it made the mistake about the phone number: "A spokesman for the Oklahoma City-based Feed the Children conceded the error appears to be the organization's mistake, one they are working to fix. 'We didn't even know the other number existed,' said spokesman Tony Sellars." Ochocinco apologized but said the boxes were printed in Pittsburgh -- city that is home to the Steelers, the Bengals rivals: "Something isn't right."

Average CEO Pay In Ohio's Big Metro Charities: $144,632 In Cleveland; $135,000 In Cincinnati

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Charity Navigator released a massive study today examining how charities operate and spend their money in the nation's 30 largest metro areas. Both Cleveland and Cincinnati showed up on a list with some of the highest salaried CEOs heading non-profits. You can see the national rankings here. The study shows shows charity CEO pay is 5th highest in Cleveland, and 9th highest in Cincinnati. Ironically, both cities are also among the the nation's poorest. But the poverty rate did not play into Charity Navigator's study, which noted:

"Our analysis, completed in May of 2008, demonstrated that the financial behavior of America's charities is influenced by the metropolitan market within which the charity operates. For example, Charity Navigator proved that charities in Colorado Springs have the least amount of rainy day funds. That is due to the concentration of religious groups, which tend to maintain relatively small amounts of working capital. We also learned that charities in New York City, where the cost of living is higher than just about anywhere else in the country, report the highest level of CEO pay."

But the cost of living shouldn't be a factor in Ohio CEO pay -- Cleveland and Cincinnati are far less expensive places to live than New York City, or Chicago, or San Francisco. Yet the average salaries of charity honchos in Chicago and San Francisco are less. Pittsburgh, Portland and Indianapolis have the lowest CEO pay -- and Pittsburgh and Indianapolis are clearly counterparts of the two Ohio metro areas. One possible explanation: In Cincinnati 22% of charitable contributions are directed to arts organizations, 5th highest in the nation, and the arts get the biggest cut of all charitable giving. In Cleveland, 20% of donations go to the arts. Perhaps the people who run major arts organizations are compensated better than people who run social service and anti-poverty groups.

There is a breakdown about charities in the two Ohio communities here and here. As an aside, the study reported that "Cincinnati has no large religious charities."